John Grisham’s New Book ‘Sycamore Row’: An Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from John Grisham’s new novel, “Sycamore Row,” which will be published by Doubleday on Oct. 22. The book returns to the character of Jake Brigance and the Clanton, Mississippi courthouse of “A Time to Kill,” Grisham’s 1988 bestseller that is being adapted into a Broadway play this fall. “Sycamore Row” centers on a new trial that exposes Clanton’s troubled past with race relations.

In the serial tradition of Charles Dickens and Tom Wolfe–but with an online update–each day this week, the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog will run a thrilling excerpt from Grisham’s new novel. Below is the first installment. Check back in daily.

They found Seth Hubbard in the general area where he had promised to be, though not exactly in the condition expected. He was at the end of a rope, six feet off the ground and twisting slightly in the wind. A front was moving through and Seth was soaked when they found him, not that it mattered. Someone would point out that there was no mud on his shoes and no tracks below him, so therefore he was probably hanging and dead when the rain began. Why was that important? Ultimately, it was not.

The logistics of hanging oneself from a tree are not that simple. Evidently, Seth thought of everything. The rope was three-quarter-inch braided natural Manila, of some age and easily strong enough to handle Seth, who weighed 160 pounds a month earlier at the doctor’s office. Later, an employee in one of Seth’s factories would report that he had seen his boss cut the fifty-foot length from a spool a week before using it in such dramatic fashion. One end was tied firmly to a lower branch of the same tree and secured with a slapdash mix of knots and lashings. But, they held. The other end was looped over a higher branch, two feet in girth and exactly twenty-one feet from the

ground. From there it fell about nine feet, culminating in a perfect hangman’s knot, one that Seth had undoubtedly worked on for some time. The noose was straight from the textbook with thirteen coils designed to collapse the loop under pressure. A true hangman’s knot snaps the neck, making death quicker and less painful, and apparently Seth had done his homework. Other than what was obvious, there was no sign of a struggle or suffering.

A six-foot stepladder had been kicked aside and was lying benignly nearby. Seth had picked his tree, flung his rope, tied it off, climbed the ladder, adjusted the noose, and, when everything was just right, kicked the ladder and fell. His hands were free and dangling near his pockets.

Check back in tomorrow for the next installment of ”Sycamore Row” by John Grisham. Copyright John Grisham 2013. Do not reprint without express permission from Doubleday.